Explain concept of creating own games Very basic introduction to 2diy. Focus on the catching game. show how to create a very basic game that only catches multiples of 6, explain drawing tools. Get pupils to create own games and figure out for themselves how to change various facets of the game. They should share this info with each other. After 30 mins of creation talk about the following...

How do you...

Change the time

Change points including -ve points for minus scores

Change ‘Time up’ message

Change points scored

Magnify drawings

Pupils discuss an area of the curriculum they can create games to support. Look at the categories covered in the previous session and the games they created. Not all games supported learning objectives clearly and this needs addressing this time. How did each type of game support learning? Some are easier than others to pin down. Activities and quizzes are more explicit, games are harder.

Discuss copyright with pupils. Discuss e-safety procedure, where and how to search for copyright free images. What to do if you see an inappropriate image.

Ask pupils to demonstrate how you can import downloaded images into characters. Pupils lead the demonstration. Pupils add their own images into the catching game.

Repeat this process for downloading sound effects. Get pupils to download from soungle.com

Also get pupils to record own sounds and experiment with sound creation tool.

Add sounds to the game.

Ask pupils to think over the next week about the theme for their games and what will they teach children who play them.

Session Two

At the start of this session all groups are given A1 paper and a marker pen. They need to write down the theme for their games to focus on. They should identify what people will learn by playing games, EG Aztecs

To learn which foods the Aztecs ate

To recognise Aztec and non Aztec gods

To know why the Spaniards defeated the Aztecs.

They then look at the game menu in2diy and link games to the objectives

1 = catching, maze, cloze etc

Remind pupils you can use a game style more than once, try to have a balance of work so not all games or all quizzes etc

They can then assign group members to each game and begin creation.

Explain how to make games with different levels. Think how this fits in with your game and learning objectives EG in Maths it may be based on easier tables. Stress each level must be harder than the previous (obvious but....)

Go through the introduction screen. Ask pupils to fill in all elements and write clear instructions for how to play the game including what to collect and what to avoid.

Session Three

Time given to finish game created last week.

Play each others games and give feedback- post it notes left around - post 2 stars and a wish comments on each others games. Make sure pupils (and teachers) move around from school to school and not just stay with their pals.

More time given to refine game.

2DIY archive action script tutorial1

Pupils open a part created maze game and add actionscript to make the character re appear at a location determined by them

Pupils allocated one of the following actionscript tutorials and then teach others how to do it 2 pupils from each school use one of the following tutorials. Pair up with a pupil from another school to teach each other how to use the action script

Also use actionscript tutorial 3 to make the apple element move away as you get closer to it.

Action script tutorial 5 - One player avoids being caught by the other.

Pupils are encourage to play with variables and share their finding with each other.

Session Four

Most of the session is to be given over to pupils creating more games to support their learning objectives. Recap on action script, copyright free sound and images.

Allow children to play each others games and use Google form on 2diy.challengeclc.com to vote for their best game. Stress it’s about teaching knowledge of practicing a skill, more than a fun game. Results come through live on Google spreadsheet

Tim also added the following comments following his planning;

It was a project for five schools sending 4/5 G&T yr 5 pupils each. We spent a lot of time playing and experimenting. I'm running it again and being much more demanding re making the learning objectives.

One thing I have changed is using the Google site. In the first cycle I set up all children as users on our Google site. They created the forms to do market research with teachers and they uploaded their own games to a storage area on the site. The idea was that they could upload and download one document between school, home and the CLC. I decided to let the children decide on the learning area this time as not enough teachers filled in the form in the first cohort. This time I've just got them to create separate work at the clc. If they want to send things in from home I've given them an email address.

With the SATs over, Year6 pupils can finally do something fun and exciting, and I've set about planning a short (3 week) unit using 2DIY to create a platform style game.

The children I am working with have used 2DIY previously, and so I do not need to run through the lessons I have taught on past occasions, as they already know the main features of the program. Instead, the children are going to be challenged to plan, design, create, test, complete, distribute and promote their game.

That sounds like a lot of work in just three weeks, but it is possible within the time, and each aspect will work as follows;

Plan: (1st lesson). The children will be expected to plan out the look of their platform game. I will give them a Planning sheet with a grid that corresponds to the 2DIY gamescreen, and onto this the children will add letters to indicate aspects of their game. P=Platform, CH=Main Character, C=Collectable Item, M=Monster, S=Sun. The animation for each element will also need to be mentioned on their plan. During this lesson they also need to decide whether their game will be a 'simple' platform game in which the whole screen is visible, or a 'scrolling' game where only part of the screen is visible as they move their character around. If the pupils intend to use any examples of advanced code, (flying character, invisible elements, orbiting elements, etc) they also need to mention that in their plan.

Design: (1st lesson). The children need to draw and colour designs for their main character, collectables, monsters, sun and platform elements of the game.

Create: (2nd lesson). The children create the designs for their elements, and place the platform blocks on screen in the position from their initial plan. They also add their character, collectables, monsters and suns in the positions from their plan and animate them as written.

Test: (2nd lesson). Once the game has been built, it can be tested. If it is too easy, there is a chance for them to make it harder. Pupils can assess each others games at this point, and peer review them.

Complete: (3rd lesson). Final changes can be made to their games, and the title screen giving instructions on how to play and complete it created. It is important to make sure that the instructions contain information on what needs to be collected, what needs to be avoided, and how to move the character around the screen.

Distribute & Promote: (3rd lesson) Publish the completed game online on the school website (in the case of my groups of pupils, this will be in their own blogs - their learning spaces). There is also the possibility to create a CD box cover for their game using the free PurpleMash 'Game Box Designer' apptivity. If time runs out, this is an additional activity that can be set for pupils to complete at home. For pupils who log into PurpleMash, there is the option to save their work to continue in another location.

Once the pupils have completed this project, I hope to place some of their planning sheets, platform games and box designs on here to show as examples.

Recently Anthony Evans (@2SimpleAnt) from 2Simple pointed me in the direction of a video on the [old] DCSF standards website of an author narrating a tale of Robin Hood. I've reproduced the transcript of the tale below (as the DCSF site will be vanishing very soon).

He said "Just crying out for a 2DIY game this [link to site] anyone done it?"

Well, no. I don't think anyone had. But what a great idea. Tell (or read) a story to a class, and then ask the children to re-tell that story using 2DIY. The children would need to include the characters and situations from the tale in their creation. The tale could be classic (imagine scenes from 'Treasure Island' or 'The Hobbit') as a 2DIY game, or a favourite ('The Hungry Caterpillar' or 'We're Going On A Bearhunt').

So, after listening to the tale of Robin Hood, this was my take on it;

Pupils at Porchester Junior School have been learning about Actionscript within 2DIY. They learnt how to use Actionscript to create continuous movement of the vehicle in the "journey" template, how to use Actionscript to specify which keys will make the game move, how to use Actionscript to reverse the direction of movement during a collision, and how to make an object bounce back off the edge of the screen.

See some of their creations below, along with an excellent example of a two player version with added sound.